On September 16-17, the International Humanitarian University (IHU) hosted the VII International Scientific and Practical Conference “Prospects for Effective Management Decisions in Business and Projects” in Odessa.

It was attended by more than 100 scientists and practitioners from 10 European countries (Ukraine, Germany, France, UK, Estonia, Serbia, etc.). Representatives of foreign and domestic universities and business schools, research institutes, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, as well as businesses presented the results of their research and innovation activities at the event. The conference was aimed at discussing advances in science and practice in the field of economics and management, which can be useful for improving the effectiveness of decision-making in business and projects. The conference program included plenary and working group meetings, a round table, presentations of research developments of the conference participants, as well as cognitive and cultural events. At the opening of the conference the participants were greeted by the heads of the organizing committee: rector of the IHU, Doctor of Law, Professor Hromovenko K.V. and vice-rector for Research and Education, Doctor of Economics, Prof. Goncharuk A.G. During the opening ceremony, the best professors, undergraduate and PhD students of the IHU were awarded on the results of the academic year. The plenary session of the conference was opened by an interesting presentation by world-renowned scientist and management practitioner, founder of Simon-Kucher & Partners, professor of the top world universities (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc.), Dr. Hermann Simon (Germany) about “hidden champions” – the companies, which are relatively small but very successful, and hide behind a veil of invisibility, introducing state-of-the-art technology.Presentations of the following speakers of the meeting – Vice President of the Jean Moulin University of Lyon III (France), Full Professor of Human Resources Management, Dr. Didier Vinot and Professor of the University of Belgrade (Serbia), Dr. Valentina Marinkovic, addressed the issues of health management. In particular, they discussed the trends and organizational prospects for a “valuation” and value in health care organizations, as well as the use of promising risk management tools to improve health care systems, preventing medical errors and social assistance to the elderly.After the lunch break, the conference continued in the form of working groups, at which well-known Odessa entrepreneurs, scientists, government officials and public figures spoke.

The Section 6 on managing social innovation and entrepreneurship included presentations by the leaders of the COST Action CA18236 “Multi-disciplinary innovation for social change” SHIINE: action chair – Dr. Katri-Liis Lepik from the University of Tallinn (Estonia); action vice-chair – the managing director of the social start-up The Skill Mill, David Parks (UK), who talked about their COST Action and the opportunities it provides for young scientists, social entrepreneurs and volunteers to solve social problems in different European countries. Ukraine is represented in this COST Action by the IHU.The next day, September 17, 2021, the conference continued its work in the format of a round table on managing medical tourism, which was attended by both foreign participants and representatives of local authorities, Ukrainian parliament and heads of medical institutions, universities, NGOs and enterprises of the Odessa region. The participants of the round table discussed the problems and prospects of medical tourism development in Ukraine and presented the opportunities provided to patients by local health care institutions.All papers of the conference participants are published in the conference proceedings, and the best of them will be published as articles in the Journal of Applied Management and Investments, as well as in a special issue of Polityka Energetyczna journal that is indexed by the Scopus.

Conference overview

Overview of the conference on TV

Presentation by Dr. Katri-Liis Lepik